Former Army Officer Pitches To The Palace

A former Army Officer was among the entrepreneurs that have been pitching business ideas during an exclusive evening at St James's Palace.

Founded by The Duke of York in 2014, Pitch @ Palace supports entrepreneurs from all over the world by connecting them with potential investors.

Each event has a different theme, such as biotech, smart cities and the internet of things. For this occasion, the focus was on data and cyber-security. 

Former Army Officer Richard Gill was there to present his start-up 'Drone Defence', which aims to protect people from the harmful use of commercial drones, preventing them from flying over restricted areas. 

According to him, without drone security authorities will come under increasing pressure to restrict the use of this technology.

The winner of the night, V-Chain, also had a military background. The technology focuses on cyber-security and was founded by former air cadet Irra Ariella Khi.

However, the event isn't just about winning, as Dr Jose Videira, the CEO of a start-up that has developed a new armour, points out:

"Our main objective is to protect people.

"So what I am trying to do here is to network and find the right people to accelerate the technology so it can be deployed as quickly as possible."

After the pitching, all entrepreneurs spent the evening networking in the hope that someone could make their business dreams become a reality.

Over the years, The Duke of York had been a supporter of a number of different projects, including the Enterprise Education Trust and the Peter Jones Foundation.

Then four years ago, he decided to start a unique event to "give a Royal platform to Britain's innovators". He said about the initiative: 

"Supporting a more general culture of Entrepreneurship in the UK is vital to our future prosperity."

The first Pitch @ Palace event took place in 2014, when the first 12 entrepreneurs were chosen to pitch their businesses to the audience at St James’s Palace.